Thursday, February 9, 2017

CORTLAND WOMAN ADJUDGED INSANE AND TAKEN TO STATE HOSPITAL

Dr. H. T. Dana

Cortland Evening Standard, Thursday,
November 23, 1893.

ADJUDGED INSANE.

An
Unfortunate Young Lady Taken to the Asylum.

Margaret May O'Donnell has been adjudged insane
and has been taken to the Binghamton state hospital for treatment. She was
examined by Dr. H. T. Dana of Cortland and Dr. G. D. Bradford of Homer, who
found that she had a first attack about a year ago and it has been gradually
growing worse.

She has at three different times attempted
suicide and no reason has yet been discovered for her being insane. She is 21
years of age and has worked steadily as a domestic till about a year ago. She
had one brother who was adjudged insane, but he is said to have recovered.

In the examination she stated that she had
typhoid pneumonia and nervous prostration since Nov. 2, and that she met a Mr.
Weeks of Rochester at the [railroad] station whom she had never seen before, but they were
secretly married at that time. She also stated that she was engaged to be married
to her cousin at Syracuse. She claimed that she was sick in bed, but got up and
dressed and said that she had to take the evening train for Rochester. The
doctors reported that the woman was excited, but not suspicious or secretive.

The law in regard to transposing insane people
to the asylum was changed on October 1 and after the examination,
superintendent of the poor, A. W. Angel, sent word to the hospital and two trained
nurses, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Mincemoy, came here and took Miss O'Donnell to the
asylum at Binghamton.

The unfortunate young lady is of a good
family and has a number of relatives in this county. Among them are her sisters,
Mrs. Robert Ellis of 156 Port Watson-st. and Mrs. Martin McMahon of Cortland
and her brothers, William and Patrick O'Donnell of Homer.

THE
BURGLARS WERE HUNGRY.

One
House Entered—Frightened away from the Second One.

Mr. John Conrad, who lives on the northeast
corner of Port Watson and Pomeroy-sts., is a very early riser. It was between 3
and 4 o'clock this morning when he arose and prepared to dress himself. When he
retired last night he hung his vest on the bedpost at the foot of his bed and
deposited his trousers and other garments in a chair near the head of his bed.
As he looked for them this morning they were missing.

He
knew at once that they had not disappeared without hands. On searching around
for them he discovered his trousers and vest lying on a table in the kitchen.
When he went to bed his open face silver watch was in a vest pocket. This was
found lying on top of the vest, having been taken out of the pocket. Part of
his wife's clothing had also been taken from the bedroom and lay beside the
kitchen table. On the table lay Mrs. Conrad's purse empty.

Mr. Conrad stepped back to the bedroom and
inquired of his wife how much money she had in her purse last night. She
replied that she had $1.60. Well, he said, it's gone. The purse had been left
last night on a shelf in the diningroom. On this same shelf lay a valuable
hunting case silver watch also belonging to Mr. Conrad, and this was not taken.
Evidently the burglars were not after watches.

Nothing else was taken from the house except
food, and here too the burglars showed how considerate they were. Two pounds of
sausage were purchased last night for breakfast, and lay on the kitchen table.
The burglars took half and left half. They also took half of a custard pie and
half of a loaf of bread and a little dried beef.

Entrance had been affected through a window
in the kitchen which had been left unfastened. They made their exit through the
kitchen door and left it open. Mr. Conrad thinks there was more than one
burglar in the house.

On the opposite corner of Port Watson and
Pomeroy-sts., is the home of Col. Frank Place. Sometime during the night they
were aroused by a noise in the kitchen. Mrs. Place asked her husband if he put
the cats all out of the house last night. He thought he had done so, but they
called "kitty, kitty" from the bed and did not arise. No cats
appeared in response to the call and nothing farther was heard.

This morning they found a window in the kitchen
raised up half way. On this windowsill stood a fruit jar with plant slips in
it. Last night an umbrella had been left leaning against this window. This
morning the umbrella was found on the piazza outside of the window. Col. and
Mrs. Place think that the burglar took this out in preparation to trying to get
in, and that probably the umbrella struck the glass jar and produced the noise
which they heard and which caused them to speak, and that at the sound of their
voices the caller departed. Col. Place says he don't know but it would be well
for them to post a notice for the benefit of all hungry burglars to the effect
that they don't keep many things cooked up ahead and that it might be an
unsatisfactory place on this account at which to call.

—Diphtheria is on the increase in Syracuse. Five
new cases were reported yesterday.

—A $5,000 boathouse is to be built on Cayuga
lake at Ithaca for the students of the Cascadilla school.

—A few games are needed at the Y. M. C. A.
rooms to assist the young men in passing more pleasantly the long winter
evenings.

—An important meeting of the C. M. B. A.
will be held in their rooms next Wednesday
evening, at which officers will be elected for the ensuing year.

—Jerry O'Connor of Homer, who was arrested
yesterday afternoon by Chief Sager for public intoxication, was discharged this
morning with a reprimand.

—A dangerous counterfeit of the new twenty-five
cent silver coin is in circulation. It is of the date 1892. It is a first rate
imitation, but has no ring when tried.

—Judge William B. Edwards of Binghamton died
at his home in that city soon after 12 o'clock this morning at the age of
sixty-four years. The cause was typhoid fever.

—Mrs. Rosanna Ellsworth died at 1:45 P. M.
yesterday of pneumonia, aged 80 years, 9 months and 8 days. She was born in
England and was highly esteemed by all who knew her.

—All those who trip the light fantastic should
not fail to attend the dance at Empire hall to-morrow evening. Good music is to
be in attendance, and as it is for the benefit of the reading room it should be
liberally patronized.

—The ladies of the Auxiliary are making preparations
for a delicious supper for Friday P. M. in the Presbyterian parlors.
Substantials and delicacies will be served in the most approved style. Tickets
25 cents.

—The E., C. & N. passenger train due
here at 3:12 P. M. did not arrive till 4:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon. Two
freight cars were off the track at New Woodstock and the main track was blocked
for several hours.

—Mr. Glenn A. Tisdale, a well-known stock
broker who has carried on business in Cortland several years, was in town yesterday
looking the ground over with a view of establishing a branch office here.—Ithaca
Journal.

—The regular meeting of the Woman's Christian
Temperance union will be held in their rooms on Saturday, Nov. 25, at 2:30 P. M.
The consecration service will be led by Mrs. F. H. Mudge. It is hoped that a
large number will be present.

—The Forty-first Separate company, N. G. S.
N. Y. of Syracuse, expect to be ordered out to guard the property of the Lehigh
Valley railroad, and all are ready to move. They do not enjoy the prospect, says
the Syracuse Journal, but will go
with full ranks if so ordered.

—One of the best poultry farms in Cortland
county is the Tioughnioga poultry farm of which Patrick Dempsey is proprietor.
It is located at 173 Homer-ave. Mr. Dempsey makes a specialty of pure barred
Plymouth Rocks and has some of the finest birds in the country.

—There is still no trace of the bodies of
Mr. Merriam and Miss Yeargin, the Cornell
instructor and the Sage college student who were drowned in Cayuga lake last
Saturday afternoon. Yesterday afternoon twenty-eight men in twelve row boats
were dragging the lake bottom for them.

—Silas Baldwin, ex-sheriff of Cortland county,
died at his late residence on Tompkins-st.
at 9 o'clock this morning, aged 75 years, 1 month, 11 days. There will be a prayer
at the house Sunday morning, after which the remains will be taken to Preble,
where the funeral and interment will occur.

—It is expected that the Osborne reaper
works at Auburn will have to shut down in a few days for lack of coal if the
strike on the Lehigh Valley R. R is not over soon. The works have just started
up after a long period of rest, and the operatives are highly indignant at the
necessity for another stop.

—The usual result of railroad strikes is the
loss of pay by the employees, loss of revenue by the railroads, the crippling of
commerce and the interference with business, and the discomfiture and defeat of
the strikers, many of whom find it exceedingly difficult to secure employment
in the face of a black list.—Philadelphia Ledger.

—Superintendent of the Poor A. W. Angel has
extended an invitation to the board of supervisors to visit the county almshouse
or send a committee to do so. They stated that they had perfect confidence in
his ability and were perfectly satisfied that it was a useless expense to spend
the time upon an examination. This is a very flattering compliment to our
superintendent.

—Mrs. Bridget Curtin brought suit against
William Donegan in Justice Dorr C. Smith's court yesterday to recover rent. The
jury, consisting of Edwin Robbins,
Burdette and E. B. Richardson, H. R. Rouse, Levi B. Rittenhouse and Henry
Relyea, after being out only about fifteen minutes, rendered a verdict of $102.26
for Mrs. Curtin. Attorney Thomas E. Courtney appeared for the plaintiff and
Attorney James Dougherty for the defendant.

ACCIDENT
ON THE E., C. &N. R.
R.

Between
Fifteen and Twenty Sheep Killed near Freeville.

The E., C. & N. westbound freight train,
No. 12, due here at 10:15 A. M., was over three hours late yesterday, owing to
the blockade of the main tracks at New Woodstock as mentioned in another column.
At a crossing about one-half mile west of Freeville a flock of sheep ran in
front of the engine and, as it was about 5:30 o'clock and quite dark, Engineer
James Barlow did not see them till it was too late to stop the train. He did
all in his power to frighten them by tooting the whistle and ringing the bell,
but they remained on the track and the engine plunged into their midst. Between
fifteen and twenty sheep were killed. Conductor A. R. Batey was in charge of
the train. No blame is attached to the employees of the railroad company, as it
was an accident that could not have been averted, owing to the darkness.

PAGE
TWO—EDITORIALS.

Calling
a Halt.

The press is beginning to call a halt on the
brutalities of foot ball, and the call comes none too soon. Five men have been
killed in football matches in this country this season, two within less than a
fortnight. Another man has beenparalyzed. This is considerably more than the number of men killed in a
season of bull fighting in Spain. Yet bull-fighting is regarded as barbarous,
while our leading colleges and universities furnish their eleven men to be
chewed up and banged up and slugged to make an American holiday, the worst of
it is that the fatalities and serious injuries caused by football are often
wholly unnecessary. The Toledo boy who last Saturday had his neck broke and his
head embedded in the dirt, and his companion who was kicked in the groin so
that he could not return with his team, were maliciously and needlessly
injured.

Some of the same spirit which caused these injuries
was shown in the recent game between the University of Pennsylvania and
Princeton, where a great brute from Pennsylvania ran and jumped with both feet
and all his weight on a prostrate antagonist. The barbarian was promptly
ordered off the field and out of the game by the umpire, but if the police had
taken him in hand for assault and battery the lesson taught might have been
more impressive. This fellow was caught in the act and justly punished, but as
a general rule it is impossible for one umpire to keep his eye on twenty-two
wriggling, twisting, squirming, struggling and wrestling young athletes, and
fire out of the game every one of them who indulges in slugging or acting otherwise
viciously or foully in violation of the rules of the game. Three umpires might
do this but one cannot.

If the rules of the game ever put a man's
life in danger, or furnish opportunity for its endangering—and they would
sometimes seem to—they should be changed. Football is a good game one of the
best going. We should be sorry to see all risk eliminated in athletic contests.
In our peaceful life it is a
good thing for a man now and then to face the risk of a sharp punishment.
Danger has its proper place in education just as declensions have. But fine
game or not, as one of its admirers declares, football cannot stand such a
death roll as that of the last few days. No game could. No game should. Let a
man be killed at one of the big college games, with 15,000 people looking on, and
the fate of football matches would be sealed. As it is, a noble game is in very
serious danger of suppression. Slugging brings bad blood. "Close play"
and the wedge may bring danger to life. A ton or so of [active] men cannot be launched
on a player in a friendly or unfriendly way without running some risk of
killing him. Slugging and close play ought both to be broken up. The athletic
committees of the colleges can do this. If they do not the faculties should.
The record of death and maiming must be stopped or it will stop the game.

◘
The country may as well get ready for an
income tax. There will be some opposition to it in congress on the part of a
few Eastern Democrats, but the majority of the party is strongly in favor of
it. None of the war taxes was so hated as this, and the party which forces it
upon the country needlessly may expect to lose strength by it. It is
inquisitorial and offensive in its nature and puts a premium upon fraud and
perjury and a penalty on honesty. All whose memories go back to war times will
remember how many dishonest men known to have large incomes swore themselves
poor, while their honest neighbors of modest incomes had to bear the burden of
the tax.

◘
One of the cruelest things about the Lehigh
Valley strike is that it throws out of
employment nearly 30,000 miners who have no grievance of their own but who must
stop work because there are no trains to carry the coal.

◘
What a glorious issue the re-establishment
of a heathen monarchy in Hawaii will be for the Cleveland administration to go
before the country within next year's congressional elections.—Boston Journal.

This
Date in History—Nov. 23.

1763—Antoine
Francois Prevost, French writer, died.

1804—Franklin
Pierce, fourteenth president, born; died 1869.

1814—Elbridge
Gerry, statesman, one of the "signers," died in Washington; born
1744.

1816—Charlotte
Cushman, tragic actress, born in Boston; died 1876.

1829—Sam
Patch made his fatal jump into the Genesee river.

1846—Thomas
Henderson, Scotch astronomer, died.

1848—Sir
John Barrow, noted English traveler, died.

1861—Insurrection
at La Paz, Bolivia, against the government; great slaughter of insurgents.

1890—William
III, king of Holland, died; born 1817.

The
Little Rainmaker.

"'Scuriouslike,"
said the tree toad;

"I've
twittered for rain all day,

And I got
up soon

And
hollered till noon,

But the
sun hit blazed away,

Till I
just climbed down in a crawfish hole,

Weary at
heart and sick at soul.

"Dozed
away for an hour,

And I
tackled the thing ag'in;

And I sung
and sung

Till I
knowed my lung

Was just
about to give in,

And then,
thinks I, if it don't rain now,

There's
nothin in singin anyhow!

"Once
in awhile some farmer

Would come
a-drivin past,

And he'd
hear my cry,

And stop
and sigh,

Till I
just laid back at last

And
hollered rain till I thought my throat

Would
burst wide open at every note.

"And
I fetched her! Oh, I fetched her!

'Cause a
little while ago,

As I
kinder sit with one eye shut

And
a-singin soft and low,

A voice
dropped down on my fevered brain,

Sayin, 'If
you'll just hush, I'll rain!'"

—James Whitcomb Riley.

Marathon
Department.

Marathon lodge No. 438, F. and A. M. and
Marathon chapter, Order Eastern Star, are to hold a joint fair beginning on Wednesday
evening, Dec. 20. The committees from both orders are to meet at the residence
of Editor Adams [Marathon Independent]
on Front-st., this (Wednesday) evening.

The newly organized band are to give a hop
at Peck's hall on Thanksgiving night. The proceeds will go for new music.

A chicken-pie social will be held at the
Baptist church on Friday evening, Nov. 24, from 5 to 9 o'clock.

Mr. George W. Smith has moved his household
goods and store across the street in the old store which he has purchased of
Mr. Carley.

Mr. Clark Mack, who has been in Michigan for
a number of months, is now at his home.

Mr. Clayton Greene, who has learned the
printer's trade of our highly esteemed editor, has gone to Altoona, Pa., where
he has a responsible position on the Graphic
News. He no doubt will fill the position well as Editor Adams is a
first-class editor and his apprentices have always had first-class positions.

Mrs. Royal Johnson left on Tuesday for a
visit among relatives in Oxford and Binghamton.

LITTLE YORK, NOV. 22.— The new seats for the
schoolhouse are very nice and convenient. They were placed in position last
Saturday.

Miss Alice Courtney and Miss Hattie Cushing
are spending a few days at the home of Mrs. D. A. Cushing.

Mrs. John Ellis of Cold Brook sent
invitations to some of our people to meet with the Kings Daughters at her home on
Monday evening last.

The room for the postoffice is now furnished
with a choice supply of candy, etc.

Frank Salisbury is still taking and shipping
cabbage from our railway station.

It is rumored that Mr. Bennett of East Homer
is to purchase the Wheeler place now occupied by D. W. Wilbur.

Dryden
Notes on the Strike.

The Dryden Herald thinks that the Lehigh Valley strike is very annoying. The
following notes are gleaned from yesterday's paper:

The Herald
is gotten out under difficulties this week as no mail has been received in
this place since Tuesday morning except a small package brought by the
postmaster from Freeville on foot. Our general news service is also stopped by
the strike, and the probability is that a good share of our correspondence is lying
around in nearby post offices or waiting at Sayre.

Some of the local effects of the strike are
decidedly provoking yet amusing, and one can almost imagine the inconvenience of
stage coach times. Harford's use of oil
has about given out and the inhabitants will be obliged to illuminate with
tallow "dips" if the siege is not raised pretty soon. Our merchants
are suffering from the embargo and are becoming anxious to see their new goods,
it being an enigma how they are to get here. The station is more quiet than
Sunday although the operators on this division have not generally quit work.
There is little to do, however, as the pay car is the only train that has been
through to-day. Stone for the Southworth library is also due here and its
non-arrival will hinder the workmen. Every one will be glad when the brotherhoods
are satisfied and go to work again, or else let somebody else work.